You want your leadership team to move together — with clarity, speed, and conviction.

Most don't. Not because they lack talent or strategy. Because alignment is hard — and it breaks down in predictable ways.

The hidden tax on execution

Misalignment isn't dramatic. It's quiet. It shows up as friction that accumulates until it becomes normal.

External Problem

Decisions stall. Priorities conflict. Meetings multiply. Strategy doesn't translate to execution.

Internal Problem

Leaders feel unheard. Teams feel disconnected. The frustration of working hard on the wrong things.

Philosophical Problem

It shouldn't be this hard. Good people with shared goals should be able to move together.

These aren't technical problems. They're human-system problems — and they respond to human-system solutions.

A performance coach, not a consultant

You might be thinking...

This sounds like another consulting engagement that produces reports no one reads.

Or a training program that feels good for a day and changes nothing.

Or a coach who doesn't understand how our business actually works.

Or worse — more process layered onto an already overwhelmed team.

Those concerns make sense. Most leadership development fails for exactly those reasons.

What we're not

  • A strategy firm that delivers reports
  • A training vendor with off-the-shelf programs
  • A motivational speaker
  • Another process to manage

What we are

  • Alignment professionals who reduce friction between intent and execution
  • Performance partners who help leaders and teams perform under pressure
  • Practical collaborators who work alongside you, not above you

Think of a cycling coach: they don't ride for you, but they see what you can't see — and they know what it takes to perform when it matters.

Three domains, one practice

Alignment breaks down at three levels. We work across all three — because fixing one while ignoring the others doesn't hold.

01

Leaders

Decision-making under pressure. Executive presence. Communicating with clarity and conviction when it counts.

Delivery: Coaching

02

Teams

Shared meaning and language. Communication that holds under load. Execution that doesn't fragment across groups.

Delivery: Training

03

Ideas

Signal clarity and differentiation. Strategy that translates. Initiatives that survive contact with reality.

Delivery: Consulting

The Method

A consistent three-step process — whether we're working with an individual leader, a team, or a strategic initiative.

01 Core

Identify the essential elements that define you, your organization, or your idea. Remove one, and the value proposition collapses. This is your foundation.

02 Align

Map the gap between where you are and where you need to be. Clarify the job to be done. Trace a direct path back to Core — no distractions.

03 Apply

Execute iteratively. Measure in action, not theory — what people actually say, think, feel, and do. Adjust based on real-world signals.

Simple enough to remember. Rigorous enough to work.

What's at stake

The cost of misalignment compounds. So does the benefit of getting it right.

Without alignment

  • Talent leaves because they're frustrated, not because they found something better
  • Strategy stays on slides while execution drifts
  • Leadership meetings become status updates instead of decisions
  • The same problems resurface quarter after quarter

With alignment

  • Decisions get made — and stay made
  • Teams communicate across silos without requiring heroics
  • Strategy translates to action people understand and own
  • Leaders show up with clarity and conviction when it matters

What engagement looks like

Team of Teams

We assemble the right expertise for each engagement, drawing on professionals across disciplines:

Writers • Designers • Facilitators • Subject matter experts • Improvisers • Photographers

Art and science, combined with discipline and restraint.

The Founder

Chris Carlson

President, NarrativePros

  • 200+ professional theatre productions
  • Law degree and practice
  • Enterprise leadership development
  • Fortune 500 executive coaching

The work I do now sits at the intersection of disciplines that don't usually talk to each other: performance, law, and organizational development.

Two decades as a professional actor taught me what it means to communicate under pressure — to hold attention, to make complex ideas land, to be present when the stakes are real. Law school and practice taught me rigor: how to structure an argument, how to identify what actually matters, how to prepare for the case you'll face rather than the one you wish you had.

Enterprise leadership development — coaching executives, training teams, consulting on strategy execution — showed me where these skills converge. The leaders and teams I work with don't need motivation. They need alignment: the ability to think together, communicate clearly, and execute without the friction that drains organizations of their best people and best ideas.

That's what NarrativePros does. We help leaders and teams move together.

Let's find out if there's a fit.

No pitch. No proposal. Just an honest conversation about where the friction lives and whether we can help.

If we're not the right fit, we'll say so — and point you toward someone who might be.

Chris Carlson
President, NarrativePros